Turn Your Council into a Team with These Three Tips

General agent dan cabirac serves the new orleans area. An agent for more than eight years, dan has a surefire way to build a team between agents and councils, and to achieve success.

Brother Knights, it’s the final stretch of our fraternal year — when we are all thinking about reaching our fraternal year-end goals. The most important thing for our council leadership to remember is that we, your insurance agents, are here to help. We are on the same team, and we have the same goals.

Your insurance agent is a Brother Knight working to protect and serve his fellow Brother Knights and their families — just as Father McGivney envisioned. Our mission starts with you: We help you protect your family, and support you in your fraternal goals.

So, what can we do as a team to help you reach your fraternal goals? Start with these three tips:

First, communicate.
Let agents know when you’re having council meetings. Invite agents to provide real-life examples of how K of C insurance products have helped members navigate through life’s toughest situations. Encourage your council members to discuss insurance one-on-one with us agents.

Second, promote.
Sometimes, members don’t understand how our insurance goals are connected to our fraternal goals. That’s because many members are unaware of the various products we offer to help them protect their families and insure their future. Please help promote our products.

Third, help us discredit common life insurance myths.
Debunking insurance myths help members better understand insurance — and each insurance member brings you one step closer to earning the Founders’ Award, which recognizes excellence in promoting our top-rated and exclusive insurance products. Here are three myths to set straight:

Myth #1: My financial advisor will handle my insurance needs.
Myth debunked: Financial advisors sometimes fail to consider risk factors such as unforeseen disabilities, future long-term care needs, and outliving your money.

Life insurance can help you avoid dipping into your nest egg when these risk factors occur, and it can help you avoid the stiff tax penalties that come later in life. Quite simply — we are not here to replace your financial advisor; we are here to be a piece of the puzzle in your financial health.

Myth #2: My spouse has a policy, so I don’t need one.
Myth debunked: When one spouse outlives another, the surviving spouse stands to lose some of the pension and/or social security benefits. This results in a loss of expected income; life insurance can fill this gap.

Sometimes families think they only need to cover the breadwinner. But the popular Disney movie Mary Poppins Returns shows this is not true. In the movie, the young mother has died, leaving behind three young children. The grief-stricken father is forced to miss time from work and figure out how to cover childcare. He falls into financial distress and the family is faced with losing their home. Though this is a movie, this is too often reality. Wouldn’t you rather secure your family’s needs before something happens?

Myth #3: Since I am young and healthy, I should wait until I’m older to get life insurance.
Myth debunked: Life insurance is typically most affordable when you are young and healthy. Let’s face it, you will never be younger than you are right now and good health often tends to decline as we age. There’s no time like the present. Now is likely the best time to become well insured and at a cost that is affordable to you.

Remember, it’s the agents’ mission to help you protect your family. And in doing so, we are working together to help your council reach its fraternal year-end goals.

To learn more about K of C insurance, visit www.kofc.org/insurance.

Originally published in Knightline. Click to read more.